The DEFA Film Library recently co-presented the 50^th annual German Studies Association (GSA) conference, contributing extensively program to the conference’s program.

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“Over the last three decades, the DEFA Film Library has become a very close partner of the GSA conference, and it has become one of the most important conferences for us, where we meet many of our academic and business partner. We were happy to be a part of the 50^th anniversary conference,” says Victoria Rizo Lenshyn, DEFA associate director, said of the event, which was held Sept. 24-27 in Phoenix, Arizona.

For the GSA Arts Night on Sept. 24, DEFA presented the newly restored “First Loss” (1990, dir. Maxim Dessau), a feature film set during WWII. Ruben Schwaben, DEFA project assistant, introduced the film, which is part of the library’s holdings.

Following up on the 2025 Summer Film Institute, “Screened Environments: Intersections of Built, Natural and Social Spaces in East Germany,” the library organized a two-part panel discussion, “Screening the Ruderal: Resilience and Survival in Adverse Environments,” where Lenshyn presented a talk on DEFA filmmaker Peter Rocha’s environmental justice films known as the “Lusatia Trilogy.”

The DEFA team also hosted an information table, presenting new teaching guides as well as a collection of more than 30 titles with newly created SDH subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences.

More information about the DEFA Film Library can be found at https://www.umass.edu/defa-film-library.